Late the previous week I had received my luscious Japanese micro-gel pens. Signo rocks! I bought a set in colors and then extra Signo .28 pens in black and brown. Mind-blowingly fine lines are definitely in my drawing future. Doing the backs of my postcards with these is really nice.

I design the backs of the cards putting in the standard sections, identifying the image, noting the year it was created. I add tiny touches with the signo pens. Then I stamp it with one of my micro soft-block stamps. Ta Da! She is a fetching mid-century girl. Isn’t she? The curly bangs, black eyeliner, the arched eyebrows speak of an Elizabeth Taylor aesthetic. The screwed in hoop earrings are pretty swingin’.

Here is a big blossom on our non-Japanese Eggplant. These are slower growers.

If you look carefully you can see a tiny bug on the left. It is green and may be the spider’s next meal.

The Japanese eggplant is crazy with blossoms.

It must have busted out with six of them overnight.

They are smaller than the domestic eggplant.

These are fresh buds.

The color is an electric and pale version of the rich aubergine the eggplant will become. Ah, Color!

These flower photos are from my trip to downtown Mt. Shasta.

I have always loved hollyhocks. They are the towering beauties from old gardens that i always associate with the late 1800s, early 1900s. There were often seen in illustrations in children’s books from that time.

Now when I see them I always think of Kelly Brewer, too, and her blog Pink Hollyhock.

I bought my first hollyhocks at Bracken’s down on Eureka Way. When they grew and blossomed they were double petal hollyhocks. Beautiful, yes, but I prefer these.

Here is a rose that I found growing outside that cute book shop in that little cottage on Mount Shasta Boulevard.